Movies
“Monkey Man” Comes Out In Theaters Today, And I Can’t Wait
This is a PSA to everyone that Monkey Man (2024) drops in theaters today, Friday, April 5th.
“An anonymous young man unleashes a campaign of vengeance against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother and continue to systemically victimize the poor and powerless.”
Director: Dev Patel
Writers: Paul Angunawela, John Collee, Dev Patel
Starring: Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, Sikandar Kher, Adithi Kalkunte, Sobhita Dhulipala, Ashwini Kalsekar, Makrand Deshpande
Release Date: April 5, 2024
IMDB
This is a PSA to everyone that Monkey Man (2024) drops in theaters today, Friday, April 5th. Why am I writing about the trailer for this movie that is already in theaters?
It’s about accountability. Personally, I was late in knowing that The Monkey Man was a thing. Then I saw the trailer. Ever since then, I have hushed Emma whenever commercials for it have aired on TV. It doesn’t matter that the movie has “a dumb name” (Emma’s gut reaction). Monkey Man seems to have come from nowhere and is now filling the nostrils of over-the-top action junkies with a pungent odor of beautiful, bloody, over-the-top violence.
The first thing that Monkey Man has going for it is that it knows EXACTLY what it is. The movie is not trying to market itself in a unique twisted way. Dev Patel, making his directorial debut, has made a revenge movie. Pure and simple. The description on YouTube for the trailer is “They took everything from him. He will get his revenge.” The logline for the movie has “a campaign for vengeance” in it. You can not get more direct than this. Monkey Man is about retribution, so buckle up and expect more than a few bloody I fucking told you so moments.
The production process for Monkey Man is an interesting one, filled with many challenges for Dev Patel and his first ginormous project. In a great article with Variety, Dev goes into the struggles that he had getting the movie made. The movie was meant to shoot in India, but COVID-19 hit and Dev lost his initial production designer and cinematographer, as well as his principal filming location. The whole crew moved to Indonesia and worked through quarantine. Members of the cast had to put down personal credit cards for supplies, and constant innovation was needed keep production going while cameras, cranes and all the sort kept on malfunctioning.
Making a movie sounds fun, right?
The beautiful thing for Dev is that despite all the troubles, Monkey Man is poised for success. The film was originally meant to be released straight to streaming on Netflix, but that was until Jordan Peele saw the film. Peele saw potential in the movie and felt it deserved a theatrical release, so he acquired the rights from Netflix and placed it under his Monkeypaw Productions banner. That means that Monkey Man gets distribution via Universal Pictures, which means everyone gets to see the bloody carnage.
What makes me most excited for Monkey Man is the approach that Dev Patel took towards the movie, and in particular, the genre. At a debut screening of his film at SXSW, Patel was blunt about what inspired him to make this particular story.
“The action genre has been abused by the system…You know, a quick buck. Mindless shit. I wanted to give it soul. Real trauma. Real pain. You guys deserve that. I wanted to infuse it with a little bit of culture.”
I’ll tell you what Dev, you are absolutely right. Having just watched Road House (2024) and Road House (1989), it’s 100% true they don’t make them like they used to.
Monkey Man, boiled down to its simplest form, looks like an India-based John Wick type of adventure. When Netflix bought the rights they described it as “John Wick In Mumbai.”. Perhaps that’s pigeon-holing Patel’s efforts too much. There is a habit, and I fall for it as well, to compare new movies to things of the past. Based on comments by Patel, this trailer itself, the faith from Peele and now sky-high expectations, Monkey Man has a chance to cement itself as its own masterpiece.
As mentioned, The Monkey Man drops in theaters today.
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